How Restoration Day is Celebrated!

Restoration Day is a holiday celebrated on May 5th of each year. It celebrates the downfall of Heklis and the return of the Merlin. This event changed the history of the Custod world forever and this is one of the major holidays of the Custod world. If you wanted to celebrate Restoration day yourself, this is how many different Custod nations celebrate and how their world changed around celebrating the Restoration.

The biggest change was in the year 300, their calendars changed from starting on January 1st to starting on March 1st. This makes Restoration day closer to three months after the death of the old year and closer to the date when the Merlin died. This is sometimes called the dark months, and it is a superstition that is it bad luck to wear red or black (Heklis’s national colors). It is also believed to be good luck for it to rain during those months as it helps the new life grow by the time of Restoration Day.

Most every city and village in the Custod world will hold a festival with dancing, street performances, and lots of shopping. However, shops do not open and celebrations do not start until 10 pm, as a reminder of how that day starting out dark and gloomy (plus it lets people sleep in even if they own a shop they want to work that day.)

Once celebrations begin, the biggest item that is always had is a retelling of the events of the Great War leading up to the end of the war on Restoration Day. This is done in many ways, sometimes reenactments, retold by a gifted storyteller, or in song. Every community chooses a different time. Originally, the retelling was done during the balls in the evening, but village and city events found it better to do at noon to help even young children be involved.

In the evening a ball or dance is held at the local governance hall, palace, or village center late into the night which often will have a second retelling in a different style more geared for adults. In Grameria, traditionally they’ll have the Head Custod tell the story as the Merlin’s direct descendant.

The colors for the holiday are deep green and yellow, the colors the rebel army wore during the war with Heklis. The other colors are red and orange like a phoenix’s flame. Most people wear green and yellow with fire patterns to dress up for Restoration Day, but some choose to wear red and black during this Restoration Day (always red AND black never one or the other) to remind themselves of the dark world they were saved from. The other This is seen as the more traditional outfit but also is seen as a “stricter” interpretation of how to celebrate.

Traditional symbols are traditionally golden phoenixes, swords, shields, and dragons. These cover the decorations for Restoration Day. Ribbons, streamers, and wreaths of flowers with lots of green leaves and vines are how most cities and villages will decorate for the holiday and around their homes. Some get really into the holiday and will also put out phoenix decorations around their homes, often light phoenix making them look on fire. Having the symbols appear like fire or like they are on fire is another traditional decorative theme for Restoration Day.

Like any holiday, Restoration Day has is traditional foods. Foods cooked on a fire are considered the most traditional.

For breakfast, most will make breakfast biscuits, roasted cinnamon apples, a cinnamon-flavored cream of wheat, or oatmeal.

For lunch, oven-roasted pizza is the most common food as it is said the Merlin invented them but some other traditional foods are grilled chicken, grilled vegetables, or fire-roasted sandwiches.

For dinner, roasted meats such as spiced steak with fire-roasted potatoes and vegetables.

Deserts are all about cinnamon. Phoenixes make their nests from Cassia cinnamon plans. The tradition became vanilla and cinnamon such as sock it to me cake, cinnamon, and brown sugar muffins, and cinnamon milk are the most traditional desserts on Restoration Day.

Something unique about this holiday is it is celebrated at the same time worldwide. In our world, there is no other holiday quite like this wherever a nation in the world celebrates it at the same time. Though some places might have changed the celebrations slightly, the holiday has survived for over two-thousand years and beyond. It is a worldwide Independence Day celebrated by people, dwarves, and dragons alike. Could you imagine what it would be like to celebrate a worldwide holiday like this?